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Month: October 2014

I was at a friend’s house on the weekend and her teenage daughter bounced into the room to proclaim, “It’s only 8 more Fridays until Christmas!”

What’s your reaction to that news? Something along the lines of, “So much to do, so little time…”?

If that’s how you are feeling then the Close To My Heart Cut Above Kits are made just for you! Each kit comes with all the supplies you need to make 10 cards or 10 treat bags. The BEST bit is that everything is pre-cut! Imagine putting together 10 gorgeous Christmas cards AND 10 cute treat bags in one night.

The Cut Above Holiday Treat Bags are perfect for chocolates or home baking but they are also ideally sized for small gifts like a pretty scarf, hair accessories, jewellery, toy cars, make up, etc. At just $20 for 10 treat bags they are so economical. The Sweet Salutations Stamp Set(B1466) is the perfect size for the circles in the pack.

And the Cut Above Christmas Card Kit (Z2064) is only $16.50 for your 10 cards. These packs are ideal for kids to put together – they can create a really professional look with no mess – gotta love that!

We retired our Christmas Wreath last year after over a decade of good service. This year we will have a fresh new one for the door – handmade by me!

I fell in love with this wreath as soon as I saw it on page 74 of the Annual Inspirations Catalogue. It did take a bit of time to make but I’m thrilled with the result and can’t wait for December 1st to hang it on my front door.

It doesn’t matter how big or small your table is – when you are creating with paper you tend to cover the entire surface with papers, tools, adhesives, bling, stamps, inks and, in my case, cats. I have found one way to keep a lot of the items I’m using off the surface of the table. This means they don’t get buried by other items on the table and saves me time.

A recipe Book stand is perfect for keeping your CTMH Ideas book and How To books in front of you. It is easy to follow the instructions when the stand is holding the page open for you too 🙂

An office file tiered stand is perfect to holding the paper packs you are working with, your score board and your 12″ trimmer. I also have all my different sized Flip Flaps in the 12″ Flip Flap bag so they are quick to find… it seems almost every page needs a Flip Flap these days!

A small tiered office stand is the ideal size for the stamp sets I am working with in the current project. My friend, Kim Kreis, taught me the trick of using the office stands and I love it.

Close To My Heart also have 2 cool organisers that I wouldn’t be without. The first is my Ink Organiser (Z4131). It rotates on it’s base so it’s easy to find the colour I want and the Re-inker tray (Z4135) sits snuggly on the top. The best way to purchase the Ink Organiser is as a Half Price Reward when you host a gathering. $300 in sales is all you need to qualify!

Here’s a simple card to make for new parents. I’ve used the stamp set that comes with the Snowhaven Card WOTG Kit (G1085). The sentiment inside the oval frame talks about Christmas and sweaters. I cut that out so it’s just the frame and then I can use any sentiment in the middle. The papers are scraps from Snowhaven and Wanderful. Don’t you just love the textures on these little hearts?

I fell in love with this stamp as soon as I saw it in the catalogue. It’s called Classic Doily (B1424) and it does remind me of hand embroidery. I was playing with our new heat embossing powders and thought this stamp embossed with gold would look pretty special. It does! But you will have to believe me because I forgot to photograph it before I did the next step… colouring it in. I had planned to keep one plain but the colours of the Shin Han Touch Twin Markers are so gorgeous I couldn’t stop colouring.

I began with 3 blue markers and then chose 2 neutrals to go with them plus the red for a highlight. I just used straight colouring – no shading or fancy stuff. I also left a few sections white for contrast.

For each card I used a different colour scheme. The doily has the look of mosaics and I love how it appears a little different in each colour way. To make the cards I used Black from the Basics Paper Fundamentals pack(Z1939) to frame the doily and then a co-ordinating cardstock. The red, green and purple are from Paper Fundamentals and the Blue & Pink are plain cardstock dry embossed using the Floral Embossing folder (Z1994). Gold shimmer trim (Z1985) and Bling Gems Gold Assortment (Z2023) added a bit of pop.

Following on from last Thursday’s blog, I decided to make another set of the Snowhaven cards as a gift for my friend who is a bit snowed under with life at the moment to think about Christmas preparations. Having made the cards, I needed a container to present them in.

The My Creations range of chipboard boxes, frames and albums are perfect for gift giving. I daubed around the edges of my box in Glacier ink and then cut paper panels to fit to top and sides of the box. Add some left over embellishments from the card kit and my favourite sentiment and it was done in less than an hour. The current boxes (Z1953) are just $8.00 and look slightly different to this as the lid is on the narrow edge and cards slide into it vertically. This makes it much easier to find the card you want.

Yes! It’s only 11 weeks until Christmas so let’s make sure that resolution to actually SEND some cards this year is met. I don’t send 50-60 cards like I used to but there are a dozen or so really special friends who deserve a card each year. The Snowhaven Cardmaking Kit was perfect for me this year. The kit makes 15 beautifully hand crafted cards in an afternoon or evening. You make 5 cards each of 3 designs. Mine have been done since mid-August. Guess how good that feels!

At just $37, this is a bargain. Where could you buy such beautifully hand made cards for a little over $2 each? Why not order your kit today and register for my card class in Duncraig, WA on Oct 29 for just $10 to make them up. You can attend a morning or evening session. I’ll show you a few tricks to make it easier. Email shaunnarichards@bigpond.com for full details.